Ran (free)

Akira Kurosawa's 1985 film Ran, made when the legendary Japanese director was 75, transposes the bold strokes of Shakespeare's King Lear to medieval Japan, where a warlord delegates power to this three sons as he descends into senility and delusion. Except that it's sons and not daughters, Ran faithfully channels a lot of King Lear's strangeness and paranoia, but around all that Kurosawa also crafts a gritty, stately, and lavish war epic. Running nearly three hours and gripping throughout, Ran (the title roughly translates to "chaos") drips with madness as any good Lear adaptation should, but it's also a testament to the tenacious craft and bold vision Kurosawa brought to his later works. It screens here in a new 4K digital restoration. —Scott Gordon